The farmer and mechanic. [volume], March 02, 1915, Image 1

About The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

Cablwlied 1877.
RALEIGH, N. C MARCH 2, 1915.
VOL. C. NO. 67.
rHOUSANDS OF HORSE POWER
ON STATE'S LITTLE STREAMS
Some of Them Have Already Been Hitched Up and Are
Doing Jobs Almost Any Township In North Carolina
Can Have Its Home Raised Power If It It
STORY OF AMERICA
TOLDJpiT
Training School Students At
GrenviNe Hold Exercises
of Interest
Special to Th ?wr obs-rf..
into
if.
The
T-
tin;
:i:t., r.'V
,
jilOV Jl. HUTIiEK.
'f(ri, Feb 27. I dropped
t, .r-ut market in Raeford today, and
,. v . v husM an innovation. In one
o r --.vus an electric motor turning
'treat chopping machine. Over in
printing office. Kditor Poole has
. t .
r.j,.,.tric motor running ms presses,
i -,vn Is wired for electric power.
evenu years n na iuiu ficuuu
but recently power has come.
vf. motors started a lot oi renec
,. (t is not Ions ago that this sec-
L 1 t .... 1 ; , V. '.tl TRIVIA
J 1 4.
wo p;vcr irom kiw aui
vd j ruler the steam boilers.
With-n naif a dozen years eiectricity
t come :m old story in North Car-
rthelpss there are some
to the old story, and every
;..niihing else breaks in to show
.. -a hen? the road to progress is
., uvi I" deliver us. All over the
y ,t- ;; towns and little towns are
,:iiK ieeuie light and power. Good
n icJi. m-e in a while a stranger
;.. i'-i;s into this town and lie asks,
' ui -f - do you pet yoar electric eur
si, ; .'Utliern Power or Buckhorn
tiK." Then the citizen smiles and
y,, "-.. ,,rf( following Brother Loop-
' v 'ii i.s of diversification." Mr.
I.....;. t is the farm demonstrator, and
i. r.-n.-untly talking of diversifiea-
. ..fw
li'-mc aioo" is the mark they put
ii package of juice you get when
i turn on ine iiui or iiie jjuwci
I: oxford. And that is the new
iiln that is suggested ty tins mo-
r it. (lie meat shop The big water
lovr3 of North Carolina are great
!-..- for tho development of the
':it". but presently we are going to
v '.'o that the little water powers
to add a wonderful neip in maK
Xvrth Carolina brilliant at night
toy during the day.
IJuildinj? a Plant.
i .hi not certain how this thing be
i , but the first I noticed of it was
i. tidy Chandler's dam over on Lit-Uiv.-r
where current was generated
l htile darn for Southern Pines,
tdu illy Chandler gathered up scv-
'n' i t-wns and built several little
i'"- and small power plants until
the light man of a big block of
v':i. s.i nd hills country, and his plant
Is tttaii:ed such a size that the big
f. in electric lighting come from
'Us- j.laee and another every once in
while, with a roll of money as big
' - a table lee and ask hirn if he wants
'" !i ule, and Chandler grins and looks
tne wad and says he wouldn't feel
v homo if he didn't have somebody
Peking about a wire that i3 down or
' !-bt that is out. and he better just
o.t; or. to the thing a little until he
-ad used to the thought of being
'-'.thout it.
J.it Utile dams on little streams and
; ti. plant, but he lights the towns
-i -ui-.d here for miles. Then John
Mvtjuoeii and some others put a
;l! plant in on the little stream at
hik-iew. and they hung up some
i-1 trie lights, and presently they went
-''ii tht r and built a lugger dam over
;"!u Lobelia, and hooked on the Vass
"tton mill. That is the way these
hil- ihins work. They start out
'itli a few lights and then some other
iks want to get on the line and an
ihiT iitue tiam i3 built. Then that
-ivfv, rnore power and a line is run
a few more houses, and from that
hue some more folks want current.
.i '
H'i
another site is hunted up for a
ule dim. So presently the plant at
elia had its wires in Raeford, and
v " ii-t to see the thing shine.
WtKMl Replaced bj' Jiiitv.
Electric power is like crime. You
Parted down hill and you increase
ur speed every time you take an
(h,r step. When the cotton mill
hi this section to serve as a sort
i e. -isolation prize for the departing
umber mill power sat on the bench
y the er.Kine and asked about fuel
I he vavv ,flijj nia(je sawdust and slabs.
' cotton mill has no slab pile to
'arn. A wood bill for a cotton mill
"i ine size is a painful thing if it i
"Ho ved to become chronic. Cameron
at Vass and Upchurch at Raeford
had been saw mill men before they
built cot -n mills, and they viewed
with alarm the check book stubs that
had "wood" marked on the line that
says what for. Cameron got a
strangle hold on Little River, and Up-
church dropped several thousand dol
lars in Rockfish creek. Then one day
a man pulled down a big black handle
on a shiny brass affair on the wall,
and the engine at the Vass mill stop
ped and a little shriek of a pulley and
a whirr of belts and the mill was
running with electric power from a
little stream down in Hoke county.
More recently Upchurch beat a path
down from Raeford to Rockfish creek
some miles below towrn, and Heins
came up the path setting poles and
stringing wires, and the first thing the
folks knew around town the cotton
mill was getting along with mighty
little wood. Little river is a Jakey
little stream that starts out from some
springs a few miles above Lakeview.
By the time one of the spring runs is
three or four miles long it has been
hooked up to run some little electric
plant. Before it is big enough to de
serve the name of Little river it is
turning several wheels, and when any
body tells yo.u that the mill will never
turn with the water that is passed tell
him that old things have passed away
The mill at Vass turns with water
that passed two or three nours or
more ago. And after the water turns
the wheels for one outfit it jumps
risht into another job for another
set.
This Little river stream is develop
ing several hundred horse-powrer. The
big dam that Upchurcn lias built on
Rockfish creek runs up toward the
thousand mark The unsuspected
power of the little streams of Hoke
county is worth the attention of the
whole State. It is only a little dis
tance across the country to the Buck
horn Falls development, or to the
Blewitti Falls development and power
wires from one of the big concerns
:ross Moore county from one side to
the other. But the ltle streams down
this way serve the purposes, and it is
not necessary to draw on the big
power companies except for the sim
ple convenience of it. We have awak
ened to the fact that North Carolina
has a lot of big electric power oppor
tunities. We are just beginning to
realize that for local uses the State
has an abundance of little power op
portunities that will provide what is
needed for small industries ana ior
small units of consumption, and that
the little sources of power are suffi
cient in the aggregate to make North
Carolina a great electrical State even
if the bitr Dowers were overlooked
completely.
Streams Duplicated Everywhere.
The little streams that are available
here in these counties have duplicates
all over the State. A few of the
lower counties are too flat for much
fall, but with that exception North
Carohna can provide thousands of
horse-power on the little streams, and
the limit of that power nobody can es
timate yet. One of these days if you
live long enough you are going to
.ee a lot of these little streams hitched
un. and thev will be doing all sorts
of lobs. Out in the western mountain
country thousands of miles of rail
roads are equipping for electric haul
age. Don't you imagine electric haul
age is coming pretty soon in North
Carolina where water-power is so
abundant that almost any township
in three-fourths of the State can have
the future of electricity
onna. mis . is tne wav.
n
-1
its home-raised power Don t you
imagine before long all the little
towns will be turning their meat
grinders with electric motors? It is
so much" cheaper to have running
water furnish us power so that in
.stead of turning the meat chopper by
hand we can be doing something else
while the motor is turning the chop
ping "machine. Whether we incline
to the electric power or not it is com
ing:, iust a.s the seeing machine , and
the mowing machine and all the other
labor savers came.
Tht-rp i in fit oTie -wav to forecast
-M, . '
Car-out
how much -power is develop' 'I
the streams that are running dov o
ward the sea. Include all the lu
streams with all the big ones Remem
ber that men have learned how to
control and use this power, on the lit
tle streams as well as on the big ones.
Remember that men are extending the
use of this power on all the. streams.
needed for everything, for driving
mills, for hauling locomotive trains
on the railroads, tor dining automo
biles, little machines in the homes,
fans, irons, for everything that horses,
engines and men supply power and
vou will have one idea of what is to
be driven presently by electric power,
and you wrill have one idea of wiiat is
to b driven presently by electric
power. Then ngure once more tnat
in the next few years a lot of new
things are to be invented that will
make use of electricity, and by that
time you will be discovering that all
the streams of the State, big and lit
tle have the making of a might' busy
spot from head to mouth.
Will Build Bs Cities.
Some day electric power is going to
make a great town at several differ
ent points in North Carolina. These
will be at such places as the vicinity
of Weldon, for instance. Already at
the Roanoke Rapids that thing is
foreshadowed. The first time I. ever
say Weldon was something over
enty years ago. I wandered out on
the bridge viteie the Coast Line and
the Seaboard together crossed the
Roanoke and there stood and looked
down on the vast volume of water
fiowinsr down the river. Then the
power available as showTn by the fall
at the end of the canal beyond tne
ation came up. It wras apparent .that
the water that could be dropped from
the canal to the river level was limi
ted only by the amount that could be
diverted at the head of the canal and
arried down its length That seemed
to represent thousands of horse powd
er. Below the bridge vessels came up
from tide water.
Perhaps you never stopped to
fisrure it out, but there are only a few-
places where water power is avail
able at a point where the xactory can
discharge its waste water into a
stream that is practically an ocean
port. There are just a few such fa
vored water power sites in the United
States as Weldon. Richmond is muo'i
like it. and I have often wondered
why Richmond did not develop that
power in the James and grow up to
be a city of half a million people. Why
does Weldon day after day overlook
the enormous powrer that is right
there in the town when it could make
that little place a Holyoke or a Low
ell? Above WTeldon is cf-r 80 feet
of fall. At Holyoke is . fall of 6 6
feet. At Lowell is a fall of not half
as mucn as at weiaon, yet xoweu
makes several million yards of cloth
a wreek with its water power, and
manv other products. HoiyoKe is one
of the bier manufacturing centers of
New England with its water power.
If you should set out to hunt a sec
tion of country for a big development
right from the ground up could you
ni.k a more nromisiner site than right
around Weldon. with its water trans
wortation. its railroads running out in
five directions, reaching the sea at
Norfolk and the sounds at two or
three points, connecting Richmond,
the North, the South and the Wrest.
with a climate that is ideal, a farm
country that could not be better made
to order raw material for the .factory
on hand, and the entire world for
what Durham calls its back country,
thf rountrv in which to sell its goods.
Some Power Producers.
The Roanoke is not exactly a typi
cal river of North Carolina, for in
spite of the big power available in
the neighborhood of Weldon the
stream is a Virginia stream through
most of its power territory, coming
into North Carolina only a short dis-
rccnville, Fb. r.7. The aum.ai
historical pageant. Tk Washington's
Birthday has become a feature of ex
ceedingly reat interest. Four years
ago one class of forty od students
presented in tableau a few cnes from
American nistory. This year 17
dents gave a connected series of
sodes in twelve scenes covering
years of American history. The
sodes covered the periods of explora
tions, colonial life, pioneer life. th
when tlv
stu-epi-
3'Mt
pi-
revolution and the period
new republic was born.
There were rive episodes in the pag
eant. The first episode represented
the explorations of the Spaniard as a
seeker of gold, the Dutch as a trader
and the French Jesuit as a mission
ary. The first, .scene was De Soto'.
meeting with the Indian princess. The
(Continued on Page Two.)
exchanging ut gifts between them re
vealed the friendliness with which the
Indians received the white people but,
when gold was not found the treach
ery of the Spanish when they captur
ed the princess formed a marked con
trast to the simple trustfulness of th -.
Indians. The jolly Dutchmen giving
the first "rire watei" to the Indians
made a merry scene in the founding
of Manhattan island, one of the lirst
Dutch trading post in American. The
third scene pictured Marquette as he
voyaged down the Mississippi and por
trayed the various types of Indians lu
encountered.
English colonial life was portrayed
in the second episode. The practice
of witch craft was vividly brought to
the eye a.s "Goody Osborne," who was
accused of witchcraft, was dragged oft
to' meet her doom. The typical colo
nial school, with its .stern teacher,
dunce cap, and its amusing lesson on
the salt box, was a striking incident
of this period. The stately minuet
da,need by eight couples presented a
charming insight into the social life
of this period.
Tha fourth grade from the model
school of the Training School d epict
ed the pioneer episode by giving th"&
story of Daniel Boone in several
scenes: Daniel Boone and his brother
as they caught their first glimpse of
Kentucky; the preparation of the pio
neer's three faced cabin: home-life at
Boonesborough and the picket fence
as a rort: an lnnian attacK upon
Boonesborough and the catpure. of
Daniel Boone; the Indian village in
which Boone was held captive;
Boone's home after Kentucky was
thickly settled.
The last episode marked the close
of the first 300 years in American his
tory and the beginning of a new
epoch. The Federal convention at
Philadelphia was selected as a fitting
representative scene of the transition,
it marked the birth of the new repub
lic.
The scenery and costumes used
were enective out not expensive. in
costumes showed the ingenuity of the
girls. The ladies in the minuet wore
silk petticoats with flowered kimonas
draped in pannier style. The men wore
bloomers and coats, with dainty bits
of lace at neck and wrist; these to
gether with their powdered hair trans
formed the girls into attractive colo
nial gentlemen. The girls in the first
episode studied the pictures of the
Spanish. Dutch and French of that
period and modeled their costumes
after these. The Spanish helmet, the
broad b rimmed hat of the Dutchman
and the black robes of the Jesuits ad
ded much to the picturesqueness of
the scenes. Cheese cloth fringe
around dark middy suits, a few feath
ers for the hair and a generous sup
ply of paint for the face transformed
the girls into Indians.
Shrubbery" from the nearby woods
made a picturesque background of
open woods, for
scenes. The fourth
their own wigwams.
ins and picket fence.
The pageant was spectacular and
presented the actual facts of history
in such vivid and interesting pictures,
that one witnessing it will never for
get the scenes from history illustrated.
the out-of-door
grade boys built
three faced cab-
';
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f if
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